Taskmaster (New Zealand TV series)

Taskmaster NZ is a New Zealand comedy panel game show, first broadcast in 2020. The format for the show was created by British comedian Alex Horne during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010, and was subsequently developed into a successful UK television show in 2015. The New Zealand adaptation is produced for TVNZ, with support from NZ On Air. Taskmaster NZ is hosted by Jeremy Wells with comedian Paul Williams as his assistant.^[1][2]

Following the format of the original British version, the show consists of five contestants who compete in a series of strange and unusual tasks to gain points from the Taskmaster.

A second series was announced in March 2021 and aired in the winter of 2021.^[3]

Episodes[]

Series 1[]

The filming of the tasks was completed in March 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic caused a nationwide lockdown.^[4] The contestants were Angella Dravid, Brynley Stent, Guy Williams, Leigh Hart and Madeleine Sami. Dravid was the overall winner of the series, with Sami in second. Stent, in third, Hart in fourth and Williams in last place completed the standings.^[5]

Series 2[]

On 30 May 2021, the contestants for Series 2 were named as David Correos, Guy Montgomery, Laura Daniel, Matt Heath, and Urzila Carlson.^[7] Daniel was the overall winner of the series, with Montgomery as the runner-up, Correos placed 3rd, Heath placed 4th, and Carlson finished last.

No ratings for individual episodes were made available, but the series' audience generally improved throughout, from an average of 113,800 for the first four episodes,^[8] to an average of 165,800 for the last four episodes.^[9]

Previous season 1 contestant Angella Dravid made a cameo in episode 10, as part of a task.

Reception[]

The first episode received mixed to positive reviews from critics. Darren Bevan of Stuff wrote that "while Taskmaster NZ hasn’t romped away with a decisive victory, it has done enough to secure a technical win and an appointment for a second week’s viewing." Furthermore, Bevan praised Paul Williams as the assistant, calling him "one of the show’s MVPs before even 30 minutes of the first episode have passed."^[10] Stewart Sowman-Lund of The Spinoff agreed that Williams "is well-suited to the role" of the assistant. Sowman-Lund praised the first episode stating that "Taskmaster NZ starts high in the sky – and long may it continue."^[11] Karl Puschmann, writing for The New Zealand Herald did not give the show as favourable a review, stating that "it's okay. There's some good gags and it's great to see our comedians on screen. But still, it's not for me."^[12]

In a press release announcing the show's recommission, it was reported that the first series increased TVNZ 2's audience by 19% among 25-54s and more than doubled the channel's audience aged 15-34, "reach[ing] more people than any other local comedy series on air in 2020".^[3]

References[]